(UPDATE: Bearing Drift will be live-blogging the public hearing at the Fairfax County Government Center starting just before 5.00pm. You can watch the proceedings yourself by clicking here.)

Tonight at 5pm in the Fairfax County Government Center, there will be a public hearing in Fairfax County on renewing the lease to the pro-Sharia and highly controversial Islamic Saudi Academy. This meeting is important, because as localities in Virginia begin to struggle with the highly complex realities of Sharia enclaves in the Commonwealth, one should know how they operate, and who precisely is pulling the strings.

According to the bestselling book Muslim Mafia by P. David Gaubatz and Paul Sperry (WND Books, 2009), Connolly received a total of $18,758 from 2006 to 2008 from Qorvis Communications, which the author describes as "the Saudi's top PR agent in America."

"To be clear," the book reports, "the money from Qorvis started appearing when the Saudi madrassa started attracting national headlines and continued to flow through the end of Connolly's run for Congress.

So what makes this important now?

Earlier this week, the Virginia Anti-Shariah Task Force had asked the 10 Fairfax County supervisors whether or not they too received money from Saudi special interests. Only one — Sharon Bulova — cared to respond that she had no conflicts and intended to vote on an upcoming lease renewal for the Islamic Saudi Academy.

The bullying mob of Islamic Saudi Academy supporters was frequently allowed to disrupt the tiny number willing to speak against the Islamic Saudi Academy's planned expansion in Fairfax County. Several speakers challenging this expansion were loudly booed and laughed at. … During one of the few breaks in the heated meeting due to the overflowing crowd of ISA supporters, several of those who sought to speak out against the ISA were cornered and confronted by some ISA supporters.

There really is such a thing as having a mind so open your brain falls out. In this instance, the Islamic Saudi Academy's 15-minutes of fame are up. Fairfax can't prevent them from operating, but they can refuse to commit the public trust towards an agenda-driven organization more focused on preaching hate than faith.